


The Offer

by steamworkBlue



Series: Nothing Like You & Bonus Features [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Mental Illness, Poetry, Psychological Trauma, Skywalker Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 08:58:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7751356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steamworkBlue/pseuds/steamworkBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke invites Kylo to stay at his cabin for the summer.</p><p>(poem based on my fic <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/6481021/chapters/14834743">Nothing Like You)</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Offer

This is the offer you make:

  * your sister is overworked and fretting, as usual, with a plate too full to swallow, 
  * and your best friend does not know what to do, and unlike usual, does not know how to talk his way out, 
  * and their son; their son is dying, or so you suspect,



and what do you have to offer but this?

You style yourself a traveller, but you have places, time and time again, where you have come to rest,  
perches and safehouses and lakeside cabins,  
and this is one of them, or perhaps all three:  
old and wood-panelled and peaceful for miles, like some sort of temple,  
like some place where old monks and masters have made their havens and sought their peace,  
and the faithful have paid their respects,  
and fugitives have found a night of shelter  
and solace.

You don’t expect him to like it, but maybe you were hoping;  
he seemed okay on the airplane, but looks have always been deceiving;  
he never complained about the plan, but you never knew him that closely;  
hopefully that can change.

He is not the only reason you are here. You would’ve come anyway,  
with a different child in tow. As it is, you still greet all your old friends, all your old acquaintances,  
warm as if no time has passed,  
and all changes are taken in stride;  
and you fiddle with the old dragster in the garage,  
and race the old circuit,  
and laugh and defy thunderstorms with an electric excitement,  
as if no time has passed at all.  
Fridays are still karaoke night at the pub.

This, then, is the offer you make:

  * He asks for things, space and chocolate cereal, as though he does not expect you to give them. 
  * He starts in surprise when you use his chosen name. (You know your sister and your best friend do not use it, however much you may love them.) 
  * He answers every question you ask with one, maybe two words, maybe a nod, maybe a noise, maybe silence. 
  * When he’s alone you can hear him scream and sob. When you check on him, he acts normal.



What might be normal, for him, is an uncomfortable and terrifying concept.

You know what’s happened to him. You know he’s in pain. You know this, itself, is painful, but you also know you only matter if you can help.  
You don’t know if you can help,  
but you know you can try.

So you offer him hot cocoa,  
and your silence,  
and whatever he wants, though he doesn’t seem to have taken you up on that yet, not really.  
Maybe you need to be more specific. You’re doing your best to offer him  
some peace.

You’ve never done this before,  
not like you’ve said hello to friends and offered help to your sister  
and done stupid things in dangerous conditions.  
You don’t think it’s possible to have done this before. He’s a person, after all,  
not a pattern,  
not a list of symptoms.  
But you’ve never done anything like this before, either.  
On the other hand, neither has he.  
You’re both doing your best,  
despite what your sister seems to believe.

You love her, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think she’s been wrong for a very, very long time.  
After all, who are you to deny an ailing child  
the fact that someone has failed him?  
It’s not her fault, nor her husband’s,  
but nor is it your nephew’s. He’s not a screwup,  
despite what he seems to believe.

This is what you believe:

  * There is no such thing as bad kids. 
  * Healing takes time, and a lot of other things, too. 
  * To feel that someone accepts, even understands you, goes a long, 
  * long 
  * way.



This is what you offer, or at least,  
you do your best.


End file.
